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Happy 2010 everyone! Is it just me or have the 10 years since the millennium flown by!? The passage of time is what inspired this first podcast of the new decade. In it I discuss the influence “history” can have on today’s martial practise. It is my view that history can lead to ever increasing efficiency and growth, or stagnation and death depending upon how we view the martial practises passed on to us through history.

In this month’s podcast I’d like to look at what I feel are the three biggest errors made by karateka today. As regular listeners will know, I like to keep my podcasts positive as it is way too easy to stand back and point out what is wrong with the martial arts.

Personally, I’d rather put forward solutions and suggest how things could be made better. However, people will only be interested in potential solutions if they are aware there is a problem in the first place. So what I thought I’d do in this podcast is point out what I feel are the three most common, and yet frequently unseen, mistakes in karate.

In this latest podcast we look at what kata actually is and what purpose it serves. Kata can be a kind of shadow-fighting, a physical exercise, a form of moving mediation, a pointless dance, a relic that should be consigned to history, a repository of forgotten “secrets”, and a whole host of other things besides. All of these views on what kata is can have merit depending upon what is meant by “kata”. However, none of them get to the heart of the matter in my view. In this podcast I explain what I see as the core purpose of kata.

Richard Barnes is back! Those of you who have been following the podcasts from the very beginning will remember that the first podcast was an interview with myself conducted by Richard Barnes. Over 80,000 podcast downloads later and Richard is back!

In this latest podcast we discuss karate styles! Whilst the styles handed down to us are of great value, in this podcast I suggest that if too much emphasis is placed on “style” it can be extremely harmful to karate and its combative efficiency. The podcast begins by looking at what some of the past masters had to say about the notion of style, and then moves on to examine the history of the more commonly practised karate styles.

Sorry there was no podcast in February. All my time was taken up getting the latest issue of Jissen (free online practical martial arts magazine) ready for download. That issue was our most popular yet and we’re now back with a brand new podcast!

April’s podcasts sees us discuss mind training! There are lots of differing ways in which people can approach mind training. Not all are too my tastes and I have to be honest and say I’m not that great a fan of some of the more “esoteric” approaches. I am with Gichin Funakoshi that the strengthening of the mind is achieved, not through any flowery / “new-age” practises, but through austere combative training:

In the first podcast of 2009 we will be discussing my views on the history and applications of Chinto / Gankaku kata. This includes a discussion on the kata’s history and the key aspects of its application. The history of the kata has not been definitively established, but it is widely thought that Sokon “Bushi” Matsumura created this kata following a period of instruction from a shipwrecked Chinese martial artist by the name of Chinto. This podcast recounts the story of the kata’s creation and examines the impact this has on how we should view the kata, and how we should apply it.

This month we will be covering the history and evolution of modern boxing. In particular we will be focusing on the life and times of James Figg (1695 – 1734); who is regarded as the father of modern boxing. As we will see, the boxing that Figg practised and taught was quite different from the boxing of today. Old style boxing included punching, kicking, grappling, throwing, weapons, etc. Indeed, the evolution of boxing has a great deal in common with the evolution of karate. Both arts were originally brutal and holistic, but became more and more specialised as time passed. These parallels are also explored in the podcast.

Kushanku kata (also known as ‘Kanku-Dai’ and ‘Kosokun’) is one of the most popular forms in modern karate. It is a physically demanding and visually impressive form (when performed correctly) and it has a great deal to offer the practically minded karateka. In this podcast we will look at the history of the kata and examine some of the key concepts relating to its application.